 |
|
Finally, Joy in Mudville For the first time in recent memory, folks were talking about baseball this year. The Royals’ improbable fast start and the T-Bones’ improbable fresh start excited more local baseball chatter than any at time since the sixth game of 1985 World Series. Take me out to the ballpark indeed. Which one? The field of business is witnessing an increased level of chatter as well. It has been a rough few years. The NASDAQ swoon that began in early 2000 represented the single greatest crash of a major market ever and took with it a few of Ingram’s previous top ten finishers. In March 2001, the recession officially started. And in September 2001, as if we needed any more disincentive, a swarm of violent yahoos took out their collective frustration on the World Trade Center and the great nation in which it was located. But some Kansas City businesses, many in fact, have dealt with these events as so many bases that need to be crossed before one comes home to score. Scoring is, after all, the essence of business and baseball. You try to win, and the other guy tries to stop you. To its advantage, business does not share baseball’s zero-sum restraint, but in a down economy, it does sometimes seem that way. Enjoy this years Corporate Report 100 and of getting to know the many new faces emerging on the business scene in the Kansas City area. |
|
CORPORATE REPORT 100 |
(l-r) Susan Wulff, Scott Hagenkord, Lynn Webb, Joseph Whelan, Julie Cirlincuina, Tim Barton, Jason Beer and Joe Massman.
|
freightquote.com
Gross Revenue: 2002: $46,200,000 1999: $800,000 Growth: 5,675.00% Is Tim Barton a hustler or what? While enjoying a night at this T-Bones game, freightquote.com’s Chairman and CEO managed to pull off a major deal between innings on his cell phone and then hustle back to win the horsey race around the bases. Barton’s Overland Park-based company is proof that the dotcom bubble was not all just hot air. Barton launched freightquote.com five years ago, in August 1998. The timing proved fortuitous for Ingram’s four-year growth window and accounts for the company’s eye-popping 5,675% increase in revenue. The firm’s success is more than a number’s game. It offers unique supply chain tools that link all the parties involved in producing and distributing a given product. freightquote.com adds sufficient value that Forbes Magazine has listed it among their “Best of the Web” rankings for the past three consecutive years. 1st Year |
» Navigate Profiles |
|||
« Back to July 2003 edition